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World premiere success for Francesco Filidei’s Il nome della rosa at La Scala

By Laura Servidei, 27 April 2025

A great cast and an enjoyable score seal the success of a new opera based on Umberto Eco's classic historical murder mystery, The Name of the Rose.

****1

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****1

Milan

28 Apr 2025

World premiere success for Filidei’s Il nome della rosa at La Scala

By Laura Servidei

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Sydney

Baroque opera resurrected by Pinchgut: the eyes have it in Legrenzi's Giustino

By Jeremy Eccles, 25 May 2023

Unseen since the 18th Century apart from one night in Germany, Legrenzi's Giustino deserves to re-enter the repertoire after its revival by Pinchgut Opera's Erin Helyard.

*****

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*****

Sydney

26 May 2023

Baroque opera resurrected at Pinchgut: Legrenzi's Giustino

By Jeremy Eccles

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Amsterdam

Kent Nagano conducts Dutch premiere of Hans Abrahamsen’s The Snow Queen

By Rose Dodd, 04 June 2022

Performed for the first time in a concert version, Abrahamsen's 2019 opera appears with a fine cast at the Concertgebouw.

*****

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*****

Amsterdam

06 Jun 2022

Nagano conducts Dutch premiere of Abrahamsen’s The Snow Queen

By Rose Dodd

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London

Good tidings of great joy from the Dunedin Consort at Wigmore Hall

By Benjamin Poore, 18 December 2021

Handel's Christmas classic gets a fresh lick of paint from John Butt and colleagues.

*****

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*****

London

20 Dec 2021

Good tidings of great joy from the Dunedin Consort at Wigmore Hall

By Benjamin Poore

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Göttingen

Rodelinda returns to the Göttingen Handel Festival in delayed centenary staging

By Sandra Bowdler, 09 September 2021

Handel's Rodelinda comes to Göttingen a year after the planned centennial anniversary event, but is worth the wait with respect to musical values led by conductor Laurence Cummings with Anna Dennis in the title role.

****1

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****1

Göttingen

12 Sep 2021

Rodelinda returns to the Göttingen Handel Festival

By Sandra Bowdler

Göttingen

A stunning Judas Maccabaeus at Göttingen

By Sandra Bowdler, 10 May 2018

Laurence Cummings leads the FestspielOrchester Göttingen, the NDR Choir and an exemplary set of soloists led by in a definitive performance of Handel's oratorio.

*****

*****

Göttingen

12 May 2018

A stunning Judas Maccabaeus at Göttingen

By Sandra Bowdler

London

Handel’s calling card Rinaldo still opening doors three centuries on

By Roy Westbrook, 13 March 2018

There were plenty of vocal fireworks in this concert performance of Handel’s opera.

*****

*****

London

14 Mar 2018

Handel’s calling card Rinaldo still opening doors three centuries on

By Roy Westbrook

Sydney

L'incoronazione di Poppea: cynical production, glorious music from Pinchgut Opera

By Sandra Bowdler, 30 November 2017

Pinchgut Opera's L'incoronazione di Poppea is a glorious feast of singing, acting and playing but the production is brutal, taking Monteverdi's vision of corruption in high places to excessive lengths.

****1

****1

Sydney

04 Dec 2017

Pinchgut's Poppea: cynical production, glorious music

By Sandra Bowdler

Buxton

Games of Thrones: Handel's Tamerlano at the Buxton Festival

By Dominic Lowe, 10 July 2016

Handel's psychotic Tartar leader and bedhopping nobles are well served in an excellent collaboration between the Buxton Festival and the English Concert with some outstanding singing from Marie Lys and Owen Willetts.

****1

****1

Buxton

11 Jul 2016

Games of Thrones: Handel's Tamerlano

By Dominic Lowe

Brisbane

Appearance vs Reality: Agrippina in Brisbane

By Jeremy Eccles, 08 April 2016

Englishman Laurence Dale’s Göttingen Festival production of Handel’s Agrippina, now presented in the second Brisbane Baroque Festival, is based on the political void between appearance and reality.

***11

***11

Brisbane

10 Apr 2016

Appearance vs Reality: Agrippina in Brisbane

By Jeremy Eccles

Leeds

Opera North blends the beautiful with the cynical in The Coronation of Poppea

By Richard Wilcocks, 04 October 2014

Opera North's static production of Monteverdi's The Coronation of Poppea directed by Tim Albery takes place in a murderous psychopath’s private cellar.

***11

***11

Leeds

05 Oct 2014

Poppea: blending the beautiful with the cynical

By Richard Wilcocks

London

London Handel Festival makes a strong case for rarely heard oratorio Deborah

By Nahoko Gotoh, 09 April 2014

As a highlight of this year's London Handel Festival, the composer's rarely heard oratorio Deborah was given a strong and committed performance by Laurence Cummings and a fine cast.

****1

****1

London

11 Apr 2014

London Handel Festival makes a strong case for rarely heard oratorio Deborah

By Nahoko Gotoh

Amsterdam

Rinaldo at the Concertgebouw with the Lautten Company

By Nicolas Nguyen, 28 November 2013

The Lautten Compagney performed Handel's Rinaldo at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw enjoyably, though without sweeping the audience off its feet.

***11

***11

Amsterdam

02 Dec 2013

Lautten Compagney: Rinaldo

By Nicolas Nguyen